Abstract

VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AMONG THE HEALTHY POPULATION IN LEBANON

Hala Khalife, Hassan Khalife, Hiba Omairi, Hussein Khalife and Fadi Abdel-Sater*

ABSTRACT

Despite ample sunshine, deficiency has long been a presupposition when it comes to vitamin D status in almost all countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The aim of this retrospective study is to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and to investigate any possible correlation with other physiological parameters including age, sex and calcium serum levels, among the population living in Beirut. Results of Eight hundred thirty-eight individuals, aged between 1 to 80 years, were included in this study. This was achieved using data derived from different large laboratory databases, gathered across a wide temporal window of six years (2011-2016) that included all age groups and both genders. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was 61.77% in female and 33.90% in male subjects studied. A significant association is established between Gender and vitamin D deficiency where females are 3 times at higher risk to be deficient than males. The highest prevalence was found in the female age group [30-40 years] while no significant correlation with age was found in males. However, vitamin D deficiency does not show a strong correlation with serum calcium levels. The Prevalence of Hypovitaminosis D tends to be pandemic both in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. Further understanding requires additional population-based studies in order to better assess and compare different results.

Keywords: Vitamin D, deficiency, calcium, Lebanon, prevalence.